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Rachel Carson/Transcript
Transcript Text reads: The Mysteries of Life with Tim and Moby' A boy, Tim, and a robot, Moby, are birdwatching at a lake. Moby looks through binoculars while Tim reads a map. TIM: '''Okay, the mama falcon was last spotted— '''MOBY: Beep. TIM: Bald Eagle? Tim grabs Moby's binoculars and looks through them. TIM: No way. Tim sees a flying bald eagle through his binoculars viewer. The eagle is holding a letter in its feet. TIM: Whoa. The eagle squawks and drops the letter. Tim catches the letter. Tim reads from the typed letter. TIM: Dear Tim and Moby, I know what Indian Summer is, but what is a Silent Spring? From, Rohan. TIM: Silent Spring isn't about the weather or seasons. It's a book published in 1962 by the science writer Rachel Carson. An animation shows Rachel Carson writing at her desk. TIM: In it, she shared concerns about the dangers of industrial chemicals. But its impact was much broader than that. An animation shows hands grabbing copies of the book "Silent Spring." MOBY: Beep. Moby smells a flower he's holding. TIM: Silent Spring raised an alarm about our fragile environment. And helped kick-start a worldwide push to protect our water, air, and land. MOBY: Beep. TIM: Rachel Carson was born in 1907 in Springdale, Pennsylvania. As a child, she was bit of a loner. She loved exploring nearby forests and streams. She wrote stories about animals and even had a few published. An animation shows a young Carson writing and drawing on a clipboard while observing ducks in a stream. MOBY: Beep. TIM: Carson fed her interest by focusing on marine biology in college. She earned a master's degree in zoology, the study of animal biology. An image shows Carson looking through a microscope. TIM: But instead of working in the lab, Carson blazed a new career path. She became one of the earliest science communicators. An animation shows Carson with a fellow researcher discussing the life cycle of seed plants, a graph of which is shown on a chalkboard. TIM: She simplified complex ideas so all people could understand them. An animation shows Carson speaking at a lectern. Her speech bubble illustrates the life cycle of seed plants. TIM: Just like Stephen Hawking, Neil deGrasse Tyson, uh, those MythBusters guys. MOBY: Beep. TIM: Oh, right, and us, I guess. Carson's first job was writing for a radio series, "Romance under the Waters." An animation shows radio waves beaming from a radio tower. TIM: These short segments on marine life were wildly popular. A squid, whale, school of fish, walrus, and jellyfish appear around the radio tower. TIM: She went on to publish her "Sea Trilogy," three best-selling books about the ocean. They provided an in-depth view of the world beneath the waves. An animation shows women reading the book "The Sea Around Us" while sea life in the ocean appears above them, as if in their imaginations. TIM: Carson hoped to inspire a protective feeling toward the environment, and raise a warning about the damage new technologies were doing to it. MOBY: Beep. TIM: She was especially concerned about a gas called D.D.T. An image shows the chemical formula and molecular structure of D.D.T. TIM: That stands for, um, this word. The word "Dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane" is shown. MOBY: Beep. TIM: It's a powerful pesticide used to kill insects like lice and mosquitoes. During World War Two, the military sprayed it on soldiers to fight diseases. An animation shows D.D.T. being sprayed on soldiers. TIM: It killed bugs that often carried deadly germs. An image shows deadly germs choking as D.D.T. molecules rain down on them. One is holding an S.O.S. sign. TIM: In the years after the war, farmers began using D.D.T. on crops. MOBY: Beep. TIM: Yeah, it worked on all kinds of pests. An animation shows a plane spraying D.D.T. on crops. An insert shows bugs dying as D.D.T. molecules rain down on them. TIM: It didn't break down easily or wash away when it rained. So you didn't have to apply it over and over again. The animation shows D.D.T. still present in crops after it rained. A farmer walks up to them, and his eyes become dollar signs. TIM: Soon it was being used around the world, and not just for agriculture. An animation shows D.D.T. being sprayed from an airplane that's circling the globe. TIM: People sprayed it in their homes to get rid of bugs. An animation shows an ad promoting the spraying of D.D.T. to kill bugs in the home. TIM: Hospitals disinfected their wards with it. An animation shows a vapor of D.D.T. used in a hospital ward. TIM: And millions of healthy people were sprayed to prevent outbreaks. An image shows kids in a pool being sprayed with D.D.T. MOBY: Beep. TIM: Malaria was nearly eradicated. Some countries saw their cases drop from the millions to single digits. D.D.T. became a symbol of scientific progress. Humanity was taming nature and making the world a safer place. An image shows a scientist standing on top of a globe and holding a D.D.T. spray tube. TIM: But Carson saw one minor problem with this picture. MOBY: Beep. TIM: How could such a lethal poison be safe for widespread use? She investigated further and found a frightening scene in the Midwest. MOBY: Beep. TIM: Michigan State University used D.D.T. to combat Dutch elm disease. That's a tree-killing fungus carried by beetles. An animation shows Dutch elm trees, and a close-up of a beetle. TIM: It had been sweeping across America for years, ravaging cities. The animation shows the trees with no leaves. MOBY: Beep. TIM: The university sprayed D.D.T. everywhere to protect the landscape. TIM: An animation shows D.D.T. clouds on the Michigan State University campus. Birds fly and chirp. TIM: Within a few years, the campus looked the same but sounded a lot different. The trees were saved and the beetles were gone, but so were all the robins. Not a single chirping redbreast could be found across the campus. It was a somber and eerily silent spring. The animation shows the campus, which has no birds, and pans to an empty robin's nest. MOBY: Beep. TIM: People never stopped to think how D.D.T. might affect the food chain. The pesticide remained in the water and soil for decades. Earthworms eating dead leaves would build up D.D.T. in their systems. And robins would eat dozens of worms every day. Stacked images show D.D.T. within soil, leaves, earthworms, and robins. TIM: It was a case of biomagnification. Animals higher in the food chain accumulated more of the poison. An arrow pointing up shows biomagnification, with D.D.T. levels rising as they move up the food chain from the soil to the robins. TIM: Things that were safe at low doses could build up to deadly levels. A skull and crossbones hazard symbol represents deadly D.D.T. levels. MOBY: Beep. TIM: Scientists had been aware of these problems for years. But nothing was being done. A bald eagle lands on top of Moby's head. TIM: Carson knew she had to make regular folks understand the danger they were in. So she began Silent Spring with "A Fable for Tomorrow." Tim holds up the open book. RACHEL CARSON: There once was a town in the heart of America where all life seemed to live in harmony. In autumn, oak and maple and birch set up a blaze of color that flamed and flickered across a backdrop of pines. The animation shows a cow and other farm animals and a smiling man and woman on a sunny summer day. It shows the colors of the leaves in the trees as described. RACHEL CARSON: Then a strange blight crept over the area and everything began to change. The animation shows a cloud covering the summer scene. RACHEL CARSON: Mysterious maladies swept the flocks of chickens. The cattle and sheep sickened and died. Everywhere was a shadow of death. The people had done it themselves. T''he farm scene turns black and white. The people are frowning. The animals disappear, and the trees wither away.'' MOBY: Beep. TIM: Yeah, Carson knew how to grab your attention. With such a dire vision of the future, Silent Spring made environmental protection into a moral issue about right versus wrong. An image shows three women sitting on a bench reading the book while the book's dire scene appears above the women, as if in their imaginations. TIM: She hoped readers would take responsibility and demand change. The animation shows a woman rising up from the bench and raising her arm up in protest. MOBY: Beep. TIM: Well, chemical companies weren't going to sit still for that. If Carson's ideas took hold, it would cost them billions. An image shows a chemical company's office building. TIM: So they launched sexist smear campaigns, insulting Carson just for being a woman. A boardroom shows the company's businessmen at a meeting. One of them points to a flipchart that reads "Public Enemy #1" and has Carson's picture on it. TIM: They questioned why she wasn't married and called her a "crazy cat lady." Some even labeled her a spy, out to disrupt the American food supply. MOBY: Beep. TIM: Yeah, you know you're desperate when you have to target a person instead of their ideas. But the attacks were ineffective. An image shows a newspaper with a headline reading "Carson to Testify." TIM: Within a year of her book's publication, Carson was testifying before Congress. An image shows Carson testifying. TIM: She was in the middle of an exhausting battle with cancer. But she spoke with clarity and conviction, arguing for strict regulations on chemicals like D.D.T. It was her final public appearance. An animation shows pictures being taken of Carson as she testifies before Congress. MOBY: Beep. TIM: Within a year, new laws were being passed to safeguard our air, water, and land. The Environmental Protection Agency was created to enforce them. An image shows an Environmental Protection Agency badge, then expands to show an agency officer at the chemical company holding that badge and showing it to the businessmen who tried to smear Rachel Carson. TIM: Meanwhile, studies confirmed that D.D.T. weakened the shells of many bird species. Their young would die before they even hatched. An animation shows an eagle land on her nest. When she sits on her eggs, the shells break. She cries when she looks down at her broken eggs. TIM: So in 1972, D.D.T. was banned for general use in the United States. An animation shows a red X placed over a D.D.T. spray tube. TIM: That led to a comeback in bald eagle and peregrine falcon populations. An image shows these birds. MOBY: Beep. Tim and Moby sit by the lake and look out at the landscape and the setting sun. TIM: Yep, and Silent Spring's reach extended beyond that. It changed how we think about our relationship to the planet. Carson reminded us that we are not outside the natural world. In one television interview, she said: RACHEL CARSON: Man's endeavors to control nature by his powers to alter and destroy the world inevitably evolve into a war against himself, a war he would lose unless he came to terms with nature.Category:BrainPOP Transcripts Category:BrainPOP Social Studies Transcripts Category:BrainPOP Science Transcripts